Featured Postshttp://montreal.mediacoop.ca/news/featured
enCher Thomas Mulcair, député,http://montreal.mediacoop.ca/story/%C3%A0-thomas-mulcair-d%C3%A9put%C3%A9/33714
<div>À Thomas Mulcair, député,</div>
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<div>Aujourd&rsquo;hui, des jeunes partout au Canada exigent que vous soyez un vrai leader par rapport aux changements climatiques. Nous vous demandons, en tant que leader du NPD, d&rsquo;amener une transition vers une économie juste, propre et renouvelable.&nbsp;</div>
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<div>Nous savons que vous voulez notre vote cet automne. Nous savons aussi que notre génération pourrait décider l&rsquo;issue des élections fédérales si nous nous présentons en masse le jour du scrutin. Toutefois, nous constatons que les politicien(ne)s ne prennent pas du tout l&rsquo;action nécessaire pour préserver notre planète sous le barème d&rsquo;une hausse de 2&ordm;C de réchauffement climatique. Depuis longtemps maintenant, les scientifiques nous préviennent que la majorité des réserves d&rsquo;énergies fossiles doivent demeurer intouchées pour éviter des changements climatiques catastrophiques au niveau planétaire. Au Canada, ça implique que nous devrions préserver 85% de nos énergies fossiles inbrûlées1: pourtant aucun parti politique majeur n&rsquo;a de plan clair ou adéquat pour ce faire.&nbsp;</div>
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<div>L&rsquo;action d&rsquo;aujourd&rsquo;hui prend place dans les bureaux de 7 députés à travers le pays. Peu importe le parti, nous exigeons de votre part:</div>
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<li><strong>De vous engager, avant les élections d&rsquo;octobre, à soutenir des mesures figeant l&rsquo;expansion des sables bitumineux et amenant une transition au sein de l&rsquo;économie canadienne pour qu&rsquo;elle devienne juste, propre, renouvelable et fondée sur le consensus scientifique à l&rsquo;égard des changements climatiques et la part canadienne du budget carbone global.&nbsp;</strong></li>
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<div>Beaucoup d&rsquo;entre nous militons sans repos ces dernières années contre la ligne 9 d&rsquo;Enbridge, l&rsquo;oléoduc Énergie Est et en faveur du désinvestissement de la part de nos universités. Nos objectifs sont clairs: prendre le pouvoir entre nos mains et se tenir en solidarité avec les communautés les plus affectées par les changements climatiques et les pratiques d&rsquo;extraction. Nous avons organisé des centaines d&rsquo;événements et d&rsquo;actions, rassemblé des dizaines de milliers de signatures et d&rsquo;appuis, et motivé collègues de classe et membres de nos communautés à exiger un avenir meilleur. Grâce à cela, nous connaissons le pouvoir qu&rsquo;a notre génération à se lever debout, à s&rsquo;organiser, à être solidaires et à prendre de l&rsquo;action. Nous savons très bien qu&rsquo;en travaillant ensemble, nous sommes plus forts que les sables bitumineux.</div>
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<div>Nous en avons assez d&rsquo;être pris pour acquis par des politicien(ne)s qui mettent leurs ambitions politiques devant la réalité scientifique des changements climatiques et l&rsquo;usage des énergies fossiles. Ces facteurs détermineront le cours de nos vies: c&rsquo;est le temps de prendre de l&rsquo;action.</div>
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<div>Signé,&nbsp;</div>
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<div>Aaron O. Acosta, Jeanne Beauchamp, Daphne Ben David, Sydney Bhalla, Emily Boytinck, Emily Carson-Apstein, Abigail Craig, Lindsay Hughes, Jon Milton, Kristen Perry</div>
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<div>Avec le soutien de: Justice Climatique Montréal, Divest McGill, Divest Concordia</div>
http://montreal.mediacoop.ca/story/%C3%A0-thomas-mulcair-d%C3%A9put%C3%A9/33714#commentsDivest Concordia)Divest McGillPlusieurs auteur.e.s (Justice Climatique MontréalDirect ActionFri, 03 Jul 2015 17:55:03 +0000David Gray-Donald33714 at http://montreal.mediacoop.caMedia Co-op Referendum 2015 is Go!http://www.mediacoop.ca/referendum2015
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You Decide the Direction of the Co-op </div>
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<p>How do you decide the direction for a massive National News Co-operative?&nbsp;</p>
<p>After batting around a number of plans and ideas we&rsquo;re happy to announce that the Media Co-op is holding a Referendum on our direction.</p>
<p>The Referendum is meant to let our membership decide which direction to take. Should we print more issues or less? Put our money into local grassroots-based infrastructure or national coordinating infrastructure? How many staff should we have nationally and local levels? These are some of the questions that we will ask our members to answer.</p>
<p>Below are some of the current options for the Media Co-op that have been proposed&nbsp; or are in progress. &nbsp;Got your own idea or plan?&nbsp; Email the board at&nbsp;<a href="mailto:info@mediacoop.ca" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">info@mediacoop.ca</a>&nbsp;with your plan and someone will contact you to get your option up!</p>
<p>Voting in the Media Co-op referendum is scheduled for to coincide with the launch of our <a href="http://heyevent.com/event/nsst3yfen3xzca/4-more-years-of-austerity-beyond-stop-harper-dominion-special-issue-call-for-pitches" rel="nofollow">next Special Issue</a>.&nbsp;Specific dates are still to be determined.&nbsp;</p>
<p><i>How to Vote</i>: Media Co-op members will be able to vote in the referendum on this site via an online voting system or via mailing in a ballot.&nbsp; Ballots will be sent to members via mail.</p>
<p>Current Options on the Table:</p>
<p>Option - <a href="http://www.mediacoop.ca/node/33356" rel="nofollow"><strong>Status Quo</strong></a><br />Proposed by the Status Quo</p>
<p>Option - <a href="http://www.mediacoop.ca/node/33550" rel="nofollow"><strong>More Centralization</strong></a><br />Proposed by The Media Co-op Board Special Transition Committee&nbsp;</p>
<p>Option - Your Option Here!</p>
<p>Email <a href="mailto:info@mediacoop.ca" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">info@mediacoop.ca</a>&nbsp;to propose it!</p>
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http://www.mediacoop.ca/referendum2015#commentsMedia Co-op Board of DirectorsSat, 27 Jun 2015 21:26:56 +0000Gwalgen Dent33319 at http://montreal.mediacoop.caFive questions to the proponents of the World Social Forum 2016 in Montrealhttp://www.mediacoop.ca/blog/carrenoir/33693
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<p align="justify">On March 31st, <i>Le Devoir</i>, the last independent daily newspaper in Quebec, reported that Montreal would host the next World Social Forum (WSF) in 2016. The article refers to the recent decision of the International Council (IC) of the World Social Forum announced with great fanfare in Tunis. It also specifies that it is the first time that a Social Forum is to be held in the Northern hemisphere, after numerous past successes in the South in Latin American countries and in post-revolutionary Tunisia.</p>
<p align="justify">Though the proponents of the Montreal proposal welcomed with the greatest joy the International Council&#39;s green light, several fundamental questions remain unanswered, especially regarding the plausibility of their aims. Core issues are still unresolved, namely the level of local and international participants, funding sources and, most importantly, the real political impact of the magnitude of required resources on social groups and movements already grappling with many difficulties in Quebec and in the rest of Canada. The stakes and the risks are high. It is time for the proponents of the event, if they are serious about turning it into a real political success, finally address the issues raised by their project.</p>
<p align="justify"><b>1- Who will be the 80,000 people expected at the WSF 2016?</b></p>
<p align="justify">The proponents of the WSF in Montreal announced a record mobilization of 50,000 to 80,000 people. However, this estimate appears unrealistic considering, first, the last WSF experience in Tunis that gathered 48,600 people and, second, the past Canadian experiences of Social Forums. A quick look at the number is revealing. In In 2007, 5,000 people joined the first Quebec Social Forum in Montreal. In 2009, they were only 3,500. In August 2014, the first Peoples Social Forum held in Ottawa brought together between 5,000 and 6,000 people from Quebec, Canada, and First Nations. The issue of the number of participants is important because it is an indicator of the political success of the event but also the finances, since every participant pays registration fees.</p>
<p align="justify">According to the global statistics of the World Social Forum, compiled after every event, local participants systematically constitute 80% of the total participation. Moreover, past forum experiences in Quebec teaches us that on average, the province is only able to mobilize 4,000 people each time. Therefore, to be able to reach the estimated 50, 000 to 80,000 participants, the Montreal WSF would need to mobilize between 40,000 and 64,000 Quebecers. That would represent quite a challenge as it would need to boost the average participation by a 1000% to 1500%.</p>
<p align="justify">The level of international participation for the event is another layer of uncertainty. Because of Canadian visa restrictions, high costs of transport and accommodation for those coming from overseas during in the high tourist season, many international participants will face great obstacles before being able to attend. Given the importance of those barriers, proponents of the WSF in Montreal admitted the problem in their own original presentation of Montreal&#39;s candidacy to the International Council. As a &ldquo;solution&rdquo;, they suggested a &ldquo;massive use of the Internet&#39;s potential to foster 1,000 simultaneous remote Social Forums in the four corners of the world&quot;. By their own volition, they were proposing to &ldquo;solve&rdquo; the potentially lacking international participation by discouraging their physical presence in Montreal. Yet, international participants represent 20% of the expected participation. Since the last IC meeting in Tunis, proponents of the Montreal WSF have adjusted their solution and decided to launch a major campaign demanding that the Canadian government reduces the level of visa restrictions. However, since the current Conservative government is currently doing exactly the opposite, it seems highly uncertain that this campaign, as important as it is, will facilitate the entry in Canada of participants from the Global South.</p>
<p align="justify">The Canadian (outside Quebec) and Aboriginal participation is also a huge challenge given the size of the Canadian state. For the People Social Forum in August 2014, a solidarity fund of nearly 40,000$ had been set up mainly to allow the participation of indigenous communities and people from the West and Maritimes who otherwise would never have been able to participate. Even at the preparatory meetings, such funds had been put forward with the same goal in mind, which is to ensure their participation. Will this be the case of the WSF 2016? The question must be raised and addressed since it seems no resources were set up to facilitate participation from outside Quebec during the initial assemblies held in Montreal.</p>
<p align="justify"><b>2- Who will pay the 2.4 million that the project requires?</b></p>
<p align="justify">The proponents of the Montreal WSF are proposing a total budget of 2.4 million, including 1.6 million from participants registration fees, sponsorships, and government programs. They also spoke of a total of $830,000 in services and facilities that they hope to receive for free from volunteers, universities and colleges as well as the city of Montreal.</p>
<p align="justify">The financial analysis of the previous three Social Forums held in Canada, however, reveals problems with each of these budget lines.</p>
<p align="justify">First, with an average turnout of 5,000 people for the three previous forums in Canada, none of them could gather more over $100,000 from the registration fees. More importantly, previous experience has taught us that the money generated by the Forum itself (the registrations of participants, groups and activities) never exceeded 40% of total revenues. In Ottawa, for the People Social Forum, only 25% of the total budget came from those sources. This is far from the 66% announced by the promoters of the Montreal WSF 2016.</p>
<p align="justify">Worse, should there be a deficit, who will be held accountable? In Tunis in March 2015, the organizers reached a deficit of at least 30 000 euros caused by a level of participation lower than expected. In 2009, the low participation levels at the 2nd Quebec Social Forum imposed on the organizers a deficit of more than $20,000 dollars. At the end, civil society groups, namely the labor sector in the Canadian experience, have to endorse the bill. In a context of austerity, placing the bet that local civil society groups will be able to absorb any deficit resulting from the Montreal 2016 is a dangerous move and one that social movements do not need right now.</p>
<p align="justify">Secondly, the budget involves nearly a million in voluntary services that would be offered, for free, to the event. However, volunteers do not come freely. At the very minimum, they need to be housed, transported, and fed. Reserving venues and spaces is also an issue. The WSF 2016 proponents expect to have access to two universities, one college, the <i>Palais des Congrès, </i> (Montreal&#39;s Convention Centre) as well as some outdoor sites. Even if all those venues are available, any experienced organizer know that a &quot;free space&quot; actually costs money to cover security, insurance, technical assistance, equipment, furniture, permits and much more.</p>
<p>Third, despite the existence of letters of support from various levels of government (Canada, Quebec, and the City of Montreal), the involvement of these authorities is not at all guaranteed. Social forums are political: they aim to mobilize and organize those who are fighting against increasingly restrictive and neoliberal policies promoted by those specific authorities. To assume that the federal and provincial governments and the municipality would support an initiative whose final aim is to organize the struggle against their reactionary policies is a highly unrealistic position. More importantly, if the authorities do not, with little surprise, decide to invest money in the project, are we going to impose the burden on trade unions and social groups to financially supporting an event with estimated costs five times exceeding that of the latest experience?</p>
<p align="justify"><b>3- What are the political objectives of the WSF 2016?</b></p>
<p align="justify">If the issues of money or participation could be seen as &ldquo;technicalities&rdquo; by some, the main question raised by the possibility of a WSF in Montreal is much more fundamental. It is articulated around the very political objectives of the project. According to its proponents, the aim of the process is to &ldquo;boost local social struggles by giving them international resonance&rdquo;. Though the intention appears honourable, even considering the excepted difficulties regarding the mobilization in Quebec, Canada and internationally, the usefulness of this &ldquo;international resonance&rdquo; remains to be demonstrated for social movements in Quebec and Canada who are already involved on multiples fronts against the provincial and federal governments. In that context, we must ask the question of the proportionality of the human and financial investments required by the WSF 2016 in relation to the expected benefits for the very social movements it aims to boost.</p>
<p align="justify">So far, on the question of the very purpose of the Forum and the expected results, the documentation offered by proponents of the WSK 2016 only manages to provide vague logistical answers. They tell us of long demonstrations that will open and close the event, &ldquo;1500 self-organized activities&rdquo; will happen within a &ldquo;World Social Territory&rdquo; of &ldquo;3 km from UQAM to Concordia University&rdquo; with &ldquo;gathering places&rdquo; on the &ldquo;premises of these two universities, the Cégep du Vieux-Montréal (a college), the Emilie Gamelin Place, the Place des Festivals, the Victoria Square and the Convention Centre. That is certainly a lot of space. But it doesn&#39;t answer the question as to the expected or desired outcomes of the event for the social struggles here. The WSF 2016 only exists for the event and will not survive its own process. </p>
<p align="justify">To highlight the importance of a clear political project behind a Social Forum, it serves to look at the initial goals of the 2014 People Social Forum. Thirty months were required to build, through social movements, a social forum with the aims of creating historical alliances between Quebec, Canada, and First Nations. It was an innovative project in the context of an all-out attacks by the federal government against all spheres and sectors of civil society. The premise was &ndash; and still is &ndash; that different groups and movements from Quebec, Canada, and First Nations must learn to work together because they have a common enemy. Those links and alliances must be nurtured, not discarded.</p>
<p align="justify">So far, the project of the Montreal WSF appears without any purpose. The event does not seem to address any political issue other than its own occurrence in August 2016. Moreover, the achievements of the People Social Forum are ignored as demonstrated by the lack of willingness to involve or retain any commitment from the sheer number of social groups and movements who were involved in the People Social Forum. It is revealing to compare the list of groups that supported each event. As far as the Montreal WSF is concerned, there is a blatant lack of representation from movements in English Canada and indigenous movements. There is even a stark absence of important groups in the Quebec civil society, the very basis, at least in theory, of the Montreal WSF. Where are the important women&#39;s rights groups? The students? Where are environmental groups and citizens active on the climate justice front? The labour groups and the unions? Not only did those important groups have not yet expressed support for the Montreal WSF, but the overwhelming majority of them have not been approached or consulted on the matter of the political orientations of the event.</p>
<p align="justify"><b>4- Is the WSF 2016 rooted in social movements?</b></p>
<p align="justify">The lack of prior consultation with local social movements and others social justice actors speaks to the disconnection between the WSF project and the people. The fact that those behind it chose to first convince the International Council of the merit of their project before convincing local movements, who are supposed to be at the heart of the process and are supposed to be the main beneficiaries of it is another indicator of that disconnection. The majority of those involved in the WSF 2016 main organizing body are individuals neither connected to local social movements nor representing any of them.</p>
<p align="justify">The same mistake was done in 2009 when organizing for the second Quebec Social Forum. At that time, social movements were barely consulted during the process. As a result, most of them chose to simply sit idly without engaging. In the end, there was a significant decline in the 2009 forum compared to the 2007 one. Unfortunately, the same recipe for a forum without connections to social movements is still presented to us for 2016.</p>
<p align="justify">After the death of the Quebec Social Forum in 2009, the idea of a new social forum in Canada was revived during the People Social Forum as bridges between French Canada, English Canada and Indigenous movements were built. Yet, the work done during that process, though it was unprecedented, doesn&#39;t seem to have left traces as, only 18 months later, we find ourselves in a process focused mainly on Quebec. It may constitute a desirable side track for some members of the large nationalist Quebec left who do not wish to bother themselves with endless conversations with the anglophones or the indigenous communities. How can we claim to be ready for a World Social Forum in Canada if not a single debate with those two groups were held?</p>
<p align="justify"><b>5- How to hold a real WSF 2016 on those conditions?</b></p>
<p align="justify">Several fundamental concerns remain unanswered here. Will the social groups and movements mobilize for the event? What expectations should we have in terms of support to local struggles? What is real involvement from outside Quebec, including indigenous movements and from overseas? What are the financial implications for movements already struggling on many fronts, both at the provincial and federal levels? What are the long-term prospects?</p>
<p align="justify">We can ask many others questions, like regarding the real risk that the occurrence of the Montreal WSF damages a world process that is already reflecting on its own difficulties, with the latest Tunisian experience having received a very mixed assessment. But the fundamental question here is: How to move forward? Is it really possible, or even necessary, to hold a WSF when we know that it is not connected to any social base and that it might turn into the faulty Quebec Social Forum experience.</p>
<p align="justify">For reasons of its own, the International Council decided to support the Montreal initiative of the WSF 2016. But the Council is neither Quebec nor Canada. It knows little about realities and struggles here. The fact that they approved the project should not be enough, by itself, to impose through magical thinking a world social forum on local grassroots groups and social movements with unreasonable expectations, important investments and murky benefits.</p>
<p align="justify">If the Montreal WSF project is to move forward, then these questions must be answered now.</p>
<p align="justify" lang="fr-FR">&nbsp;</p>
http://www.mediacoop.ca/blog/carrenoir/33693#commentsWed, 24 Jun 2015 16:45:56 +0000carrenoir33693 at http://montreal.mediacoop.caGroundWire | June 22, 2015http://www.mediacoop.ca/audio/groundwire-june-22-2015/33691
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Red Jam Slam Radio Festival, Bill C-24, Thunder Pride, Refugee Healthcare </div>
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<p>This episode of GroundWire was produced in&nbsp;Tiohtià:ke also known as Montreal on unceded Mohawk territory by Marilla Steuter-Martin and co-hosted by Catlin Spencer at CJLO 690 am.</p>
<div><b>Headlines:</b></div>
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<div>Constitutional challenge filed against Toronto Police against the practice of carding but racial targeting continues | Omme Salma-Rahemtullah</div>
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<div>Communities rally from coast to coast for the National Day of Action for Sex Worker Rights | Carly Forbes, CILU with files from The Winnipeg Working Group&nbsp;<br /><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TW2wp33cd6Y" title="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TW2wp33cd6Y" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TW2wp33cd6Y</a>
<p><b>Features:</b></p></div>
<div>Bill C-24, The strengtening Canadian citizenship act creates second class citizens | Anouk Millet, CKUT</div>
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<div>Two-spirit leadership in the celebration of Thunder Pride | Jayal Chung and Carly Forbes, CILU</div>
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<div>Refugees, healthcare provideres and allies rally on National Day of Action against the cuts to refugee healthcare | Kateryna Gordyichuk, CKUT</div>
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<div><b>Community Radio Reports</b></div>
<div>CHSR facilitates community conversations about gender discrimination in the music industry | Erin Bond, CHSR</div>
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<div>Highlights from the Red Jam Slam radio festival, which took place during National Aboriginal week from June 17-21 and was broadcast on 7 community radio stations from coast to coast</div>
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<div>http://www.redjamslam.com/</div>
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<div>Music this week by: Anemkiwajiw women&#39;s drumming group, The Fraser Valley drummers, and Redsoulbluez</div>
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<div>We also thank: Gunargie O&#39;Sullivan and Aaron Lakoff</div>
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http://www.mediacoop.ca/audio/groundwire-june-22-2015/33691#commentsCJLOGroundwire News CollectiveGenderHealthIndigenousLabourMediaMigrationPolice/PrisonsSexualityGroundWiremontreal cjloNational Aboriginal DayRed Jam Slamsex worker rightsWinnipeg Working GroupTue, 23 Jun 2015 04:28:52 +0000GroundWire Production33691 at http://montreal.mediacoop.caMonday morning banner drop opposing Line 9 in Montrealhttp://www.mediacoop.ca/story/monday-morning-banner-drop-opposing-line-9-montrea/33667
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Oil-by-rail export terminal in Belledune NB also opposed by protesters </div>
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<p>A banner against Enrbidge&#39;s Line 9 project was seen hanging from a tower early this Monday morning in the east Montreal neighbourhood of Mercier-Hochlaga-Maisonneuve. The three-by-ten meter banner, written in French, was translated by organizers as:</p>
<p>&quot;NO!<br />to<br />ENBRIDGE<br />LINE 9B<br />&amp; BELLEDUNE&nbsp;</p>
<p>OUR<br />drinking water<br />OR THEIR<br />DIRTY<br />OIL&quot;</p>
<p>The drop was planned to bring attention to the issue of tar sands transportation. &quot;The message needs to get out,&quot; said organizers of the banner drop. &quot;The media need to talk about it, the debate needs to take place.&quot;</p>
<p>And media have recently been paying attention to Enbridge&#39;s Line 9, the 40-year old pipeline which for some time seemed sure to be allowed by the National Energy Board to start operating this spring.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Last Friday&nbsp;<a href="http://www.vice.com/en_ca/read/enbridge-line-9b-pipeline-could-start-pumping-heavy-oil-soon-despite-first-nations-court-challenge-123" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">VICE.com reported</a>&nbsp;that the National Energy Board did not see a court challenge against NEB consultation process on behalf of Chippewa of the Thames First Nation (near London, ON) &nbsp;as reason enough to hold the project back. But neither did the NEB give a start date, saying &quot;we will take the time needed to make the right decision.&quot;</p>
<p>Today the&nbsp;<a href="http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/industry-news/energy-and-resources/suncor-seeking-answers-about-line-9-sarnia-to-montreal-pipeline-delays/article24952827/comments/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Globe and Mail reported</a>&nbsp;how Suncor is putting pressure on the NEB to explain the seeming delay and get the line flowing. The company claims the scheduling setbacks have cost it millions.</p>
<p>Line 9 would carry heavy tar sands bitumen and lighter Bakken crudes from southwestern Ontario to Montreal. Opponents oppose Line 9 seeing it as a way to expand tar sands operations. Oil producers fight for this increased infrastructure to get their products to markets at lower cost than rail. Much of the heavy oil running through Line 9 would be destined for export, given current refining capacity.&nbsp;</p>
<p>One citizen present at the banner drop was against oil-by-rail transport as well as Line 9, seeing both as unwanted.&nbsp;<a href="http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/industry-news/energy-and-resources/oil-exports-to-get-eastern-boost-with-plans-for-nb-rail-terminal/article21245461/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Belledune, featured on the banner, is planned to become a major export terminal for Alberta oil transported by rail</a>. &quot;The industry casually tells us that 220 train carriages filled with non-conventional oil will be going through the heart of our communities every day, without any public consultations being held&quot; the citizen said.</p>
<p>Along the Line 9 pipeline route, municipalities including Toronto and Montreal have called for higher safety standards, such as hydrostatic strength tests and the installation of emergency shut-off valves at waterways.&nbsp;</p>
<p>&quot;Enbridge has no intention of performing a hydrostatic test on their old pipeline nor to install all necessary safety valves within one kilometer of the waterways it crosses, as required by the law. It&#39;s absolutely unacceptable!&quot;&nbsp;said one of the individuals present at the action in Montreal this morning.</p>
<p>The Chippewa of the Thames First Nation court case against the NEB&#39;s Line 9 consultation process begins hearings on Tuesday in Toronto.&nbsp;</p>
http://www.mediacoop.ca/story/monday-morning-banner-drop-opposing-line-9-montrea/33667#commentsDavid Gray-DonaldDirect ActionBelleduneChippewacourtEnbridgeline 9line 9bMontrealoilPipelinerailTar SandsThamesTorontoTue, 16 Jun 2015 02:47:59 +0000David Gray-Donald33667 at http://montreal.mediacoop.caThis Changes Fuck Allhttp://vancouver.mediacoop.ca/video/changes-fuck-all/33660
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<p>For more videos like these visit <a href="http://subMedia.tv" rel="nofollow">subMedia.tv</a></p>
<p>This week we take on the NGO led spectacle called the people&rsquo;s climate march plus a look at Peru&rsquo;s spectacular resistance against a copper mine, and the call from the east to disrupt oil extraction and infrastructure. On the music break, Ontario based hiphop group Flowtilla with Line 9. We wrap things up with an exclusive interview with Sea, an inhabitant of la ZAD, Europe&rsquo;s largest post capitalist occupation.</p>
http://vancouver.mediacoop.ca/video/changes-fuck-all/33660#commentssubmedia.tvDirect ActionIndigenousPolice/Prisons350.orgactivismairportclimate changeglobal warmingGreenpeacelandesminenantesnaomie kleinoccupationPeoples Climate MarchPeruresistancesouthern copperZADSun, 14 Jun 2015 15:37:59 +0000stimulator33660 at http://montreal.mediacoop.caGroundWire | June 8, 2015http://www.mediacoop.ca/audio/groundwire-june-8-2015/33646
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Produced at the NCRC </div>
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<div>This edition of GroundWire was produced by GW Training Track participants during the 2015 National Campus and Community Radio Conference (NCRC) held on the traditional territory of the Wolastoqiyik at LocalFm 107.3 FM in Saint John, New Brunswick.</div>
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<div><b>Headlines:</b>
<p>Reconciliation Matters events in Ottawa and Vancouver | NCRC participants</p>
<p>Access Day on CiTR in Vancouver | CHRW &amp; CKUT</p>
<p>Kingston Coalition Against Poverty release documentary | CFRC</p>
<p><b>Features:</b></p>
<p>Egyptian Canadian Coalition for Democracy protest increasing injustices &nbsp;| CKUT</p>
<p>CHRY listeners speak out &nbsp;| Omme-Salma Rahemtullah</p>
<p><b>Community Radio Report:</b></p>
<p>Access and representation at #NCRC34 | GW Training Track participants<br />&nbsp;</p></div>
<p><b>Thanks to:</b></p>
<div>Hosts - Dan and Brian from QCCR in Liverpool, Nova Scotia.
<p>Music - Toby from CICK in Smithers, BC.</p>
<p>Headlines - Laith and Stephane from CKUT, Gunargie from Co-op Radio, Adam from CFRC, and Richard from CHRW.</p>
<p>Features - Antoine Cadaux and Anna Marchese from CKUT, and Omme-Salma Rahemtullah former a volunteer, Board represenative, and staff member of CHRY.</p>
<p>Community radio report - Camille and Stephane from CKUT, Sonja from CIVL, and Sarah.</p>
<p><b>Contribute to the next episode:</b></p>
<p>The next episode of GroundWire will be produced by CJLO in Tiohtià:ke also known as Montreal!</p>
<p>GroundWire is seeking a community radio report, 5 minute feature stories, and 1 minute (325 word) headlines.</p>
<p>See the Submission Guidelines online, at&nbsp;<br /><a href="http://groundwire.ncra.ca/page.cfm/Submission-Guidelines" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://groundwire.ncra.ca/page.cfm/Submission-Guidelines</a></p></div>
http://www.mediacoop.ca/audio/groundwire-june-8-2015/33646#commentsCFMHCFRCCHRWCICKCKUTCo-op radioNCRCQCCRHousingIndigenousMediaPeace/WarPovertyThu, 11 Jun 2015 03:59:23 +0000GroundWire Production33646 at http://montreal.mediacoop.caThe most powerful weapon: the ongoing fight against the First Nations Education Acthttp://www.mediacoop.ca/story/most-powerful-weapon-ongoing-fight-against-first-n/33620
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In the shadow of the shelved FNEA, First Nations struggle for self-determination over education </div>
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<p>For over a century, the Canadian state sought to eradicate indigenous languages and cultures through the residential school system. Asked to reflect on this, Deidre Kahwinétha Diome is quick to point out the larger picture.</p>
<p>&ldquo;It would be easy if I could just say that there was a break between generations relating to language, but people have to understand that it&rsquo;s far more complex than that,&rdquo; she says. &ldquo;If you take generations of children from their homes and families, destroy their language, culture and identity, and physically, emotionally and sexually abuse them, what possible outcome do you expect for their societies? When the European settlers arrived here in North America, all they could see was the wealth, power and prosperity that they could harness for themselves. If they could suppress our language and our cultural identity, then they could erase our people and the truth of our title to the land.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Deidre Kahwinétha Diome is a mother and activist from the Mohawk nation of Kahnawà:ke. She is the chairperson of the Kahnawake Combined Schools Committee, the body that oversees education in the community. Its board is elected by and composed of parents of the students - a system put in place&nbsp;in 1968&nbsp;based on the principle that parents should have the most say in determining their children&#39;s education.</p>
<p>For Kahwinétha, it is important to stress the rationale behind that organizing principle.</p>
<p>&quot;You have to remember that we&#39;re a society where parents had no control over our children&#39;s education up to 1969,&rdquo; she says. &ldquo;We had school systems imposed on us; what we were taught we had no say in. So when they wanted to put parents in place, there was a kind of history behind it - of feeling powerless.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Since 1969, Kahnawà:ke has been turning this history around. In 1979, a Mohawk immersion pilot project was established for children at the nursery level. Today, the pilot has evolved into the Karonhianonhnha Tsi Ionterihwaiensthakwa School, where students are totally immersed in the Mohawk language up until Grade 4. This has energized the community, given it a sense of pride and created new generations of fluent speakers.</p>
<p>Among her many responsibilities under the Kahnawake Combined Schools Committee, Kahwinétha works on the committee&#39;s social policy file and is engaged in community-driven process to rewrite the committee&rsquo;s 1996 Constitution. She is also engaged in a collective effort to draft a new Kahnawake Education Responsibility Act. The subcommittee working on that bill came to the conclusion that the current Kahnawake Education Responsibility Act could be improved, but the federal government doesn&#39;t recognize the community&#39;s right to do so.</p>
<p>&quot;We are a sovereign nation, a sovereign community, a sovereign people. We create legislation that our community supports, that follows a process that is established by our people and for our people,&rdquo; she says. &ldquo;And the problem that we run into is that the Canadian government insists that we do not have the legal right to make laws - that only they do. This is where we run into the battle of ideologies, where they continue to feel that we are Canadian citizens and that we have to follow Canadian law. And then Indigenous people are still, 500 years after the arrival of Europeans, resisting the notion that we must give up who we are to become what the newcomers determined we need to be.&quot;</p>
<p>In this vein of resistance, another of Kahwinétha &#39;s committees, the Kahnawake Education Working Group, has been central. For over two years, with the aid of 10 colleagues on the committee, Kahwinétha was passionately engaged in fighting the impositions of the government&#39;s most recent, wide-reaching legislative effort aimed at First Nations, <a href="http://www.parl.gc.ca/content/hoc/Bills/412/Government/C-33/C-33_1/C-33_1.PDF" rel="nofollow">C-33</a>.</p>
<p>Bill C-33, also known as the First Nations Education Act, was introduced by the Conservative government on 10 April 2014. It was championed as a fix for the problems ailing First Nations education across the country, where graduation rates lag behind the national average. It would have applied to all reserves not currently covered by self-government agreements in education, like those signed in British Columbia and Nova Scotia. Currently, there is no education system in place for First Nations in Canada.</p>
<p>The bill would have created mandatory education standards for on-reserve schools and would have enforced provincial teacher certification requirements.&nbsp;It also would have handed over power to the Minister of Aboriginal Affairs to unilaterally define the scope and criteria of almost all important aspects of First Nations education.</p>
<p>The bill was developed with very little input from First Nations as rights-holding bodies.&nbsp;</p>
<p>&quot;We were not consulted, and neither were any of the 21 other communities in Quebec,&quot; Kahwinétha states flatly. &quot;Our entire region had never been consulted. And we have a complete consultation&nbsp;structure in place, so when Stephen Harper stood up there and said, &#39;We consulted them,&#39; it&#39;s not true.&quot;</p>
<p>On December 11th, 2012, the Federal government announced that consultations would be conducted for the development of a First Nations Education Act. A two-phase consultation process was determined: the first phase would consist of eight one-day regional consultation sessions in urban centers as well as&nbsp;about thirty teleconference and video sessions where First Nations could provide submissions; the second phase would involve sharing the draft legislation with First Nations for comment.</p>
<p>Despite the fact that various First Nations expressed discontent with the process from the outset, the government paid little heed to their concerns. And when the Assembly of First Nations (AFN) chief Shawn Atleo and Stephen Harper jointly announced the intention to move forward with a final draft of the legislation on February 7, 2014, many regional Chiefs were taken by surprise,&nbsp;<a href="http://aptn.ca/news/2014/09/03/atleo-kept-key-chiefs-dark-education-bill-announcement-court-records/" rel="nofollow">left in the dark</a>&nbsp;by what they considered a closed-door process. Discontent with Atleo&#39;s secret dealing, as well as increasing opposition to the contents of the bill, inadequate funding promises, and an insufficient consultation process, ignited a groundswell of opposition to the bill which that also led to Atleo&#39;s resignation on May 2, 2014. Having lost, through the resignation of Atleo, its sole source of legitimacy in brokering with First Nations, the government deemed its recently tabled bill &#39;on hold&#39; until further notice.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Bill C-33 has not been withdrawn. It passed second reading but has yet to be taken up by a parliamentary committee. For Kahwinétha, until the bill is withdrawn and the de facto policies therein are officially discredited and disavowed, the bill is a direct threat to local autonomy in the community.<br />&nbsp;&nbsp;<br />&quot;There is no commitment to the true needs of Indigenous communities. Nowhere in there are they saying that they&#39;re going to meet our financial needs, for one. Second, there would be a complete loss of control by families, communities, and nations to have any say in what would be taught in our schools. First Nations people have the right to self-determination, and unfortunately the First Nations Education Act is a continuation of the dark history Canada has of being motivated to eradicate or to erase or to assimilate indigenous people into mainstream society.&quot;</p>
<p>The expected negative effect that the bill would have on First Nations rights to exercise jurisdiction over education, in addition to the unsatisfactory process of consultation and accommodation of First Nations&#39; concerns and interests, caused the Assembly of First Nations of Quebec and Labrador (AFNQL) to file on February 19, 2014 an application for judicial review of the process by which the bill was developed.</p>
<p>Under Section 35 (1) of the Constitution Act, 1982, the government has a duty to consult when it contemplates action that may affect an Aboriginal right. The AFNQL argued that the government failed in its duty to consult when contemplating legislative action that would have affected a particular right under section 35 - the right to self-government with respect to education.&nbsp;</p>
<p>The case was never given a hearing date, and it was eventually suspended after the government repeatedly declared its intention not to move forward with the bill. But the complex issues touched on by the case go to the heart of the fight for local autonomy in and control of education by First Nations communities like Kahnawà:ke.</p>
<p>The government&rsquo;s view was and is that the key powers for defining aboriginal education reside with the Minister of Aboriginal Affairs - namely, sections 114 to 122 of the Indian Act giving the Minister discretionary authority to make laws with respect to Indian children on reserve. The AFNQL&rsquo;s argument, on the other hand, is based on what are commonly referred to as inherent rights: the interpretation that Aboriginal rights existed long before the arrival of Europeans and are defined by their customary practices and collective use of land.</p>
<p>The courts have defined an Aboriginal right as &ldquo;a custom or a practice that pre-exists European culture and is integral to the distinctive Aboriginal society that asserts it.&#39; According to the Van der Peet decision, the purpose of Section 35 was to reconcile the sovereignty of the Crown with the prior presence of Aboriginal peoples, their occupation of the land as well as the prior social organization and distinctive culture of aboriginal peoples on that land. What made the suspended case so interesting &ndash; and potentially precedent-setting &ndash; was that it made the case for education to be construed as a component of the existing Aboriginal right to self-determination and self-government. The argument is that the recognition of distinctive cultures embodied in Section 35 of the Constitution necessarily involves the recognition that these cultures determined their manner of being governed. And the crucial mechanism for perpetuating all the distinctive elements of the culture &ndash; its distinctive ways of being and its political and economic relations - was education.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Zach Davis, former legal counsel for the AFNQL in their application for judicial review, summarizes the legal arguments succinctly.</p>
<p>&quot;If, prior to contact, the manner in which education was governed was distinctive to the society, and it is a right today, it has not been extinguished by the Indian Act. To the contrary, the Indian Act says that the Minister&nbsp;<em>may</em>&nbsp;do certain things with respect to education. Presently, in the absence of the Minister&#39;s actions, First Nations retain the legal power and jurisdiction to do what they want with respect to education, irrespective of the Minister&#39;s oversight.&rdquo;</p>
<p>&ldquo;So, far from being extinguished, First Nations presently hold jurisdiction over their own education and any law that would come and bind the manner in which they must come to exercise that jurisdiction - certainly, any laws that would appropriate powers that they currently have and give them to the Minister exclusively - would negatively affect the right to self-government and self-determination.&quot;</p>
<p>What is more, Davis argues, these rights are collective and legal. The laws that underlie Aboriginal rights come from the beginnings of British North America, when British colonial policy was to protect Aboriginal communities and their land from settlers. The pre-existing customary laws of Aboriginal peoples were incorporated into English common law and they continued to exist unless they were explicitly displaced by statute. This is why, Davis says, when we talk about the aboriginal right to self-determination and self-government, we are talking about&nbsp;<em>Aboriginal laws</em>. These laws form part of our present-day common law, and since the repatriation of the constitution in 1982 and its recognition and affirmation of Aboriginal rights, they have been constitutionalized. But the rights do not make sense unless they are thought of in terms of collective rights: &quot;The right to self-determination and to govern education must necessarily be collective. It is a right held by First Nations&nbsp;<em>as nations</em>,&quot; says Davis.</p>
<p>In 1995, the Canadian government recognized the right to self-government as an existing Aboriginal right, through its <a href="https://www.aadnc-aandc.gc.ca/eng/1100100031843/1100100031844" rel="nofollow">Inherent Right Policy</a>. The policy clearly enumerates &#39;education&#39; as a subject that can be negotiated under a self-government agreement. It also states that the recognition of the inherent right of self-government is &quot;based on the view that Aboriginal peoples of Canada have the right to govern themselves in relation to matters that are internal to their communities, integral to their unique cultures, identities, traditions, languages and institutions.&quot;</p>
<p>The government reiterated its commitment to this policy in its August 2014 <a href="https://www.aadnc-aandc.gc.ca/DAM/DAM-INTER-HQ-LDC/STAGING/texte-text/ldc_ccl_renewing_land_claims_policy_2014_1408643594856_eng.pdf" rel="nofollow">interim comprehensive claims policy,</a> declaring its commitment to seek &lsquo;legal certainty&rsquo; with regard to non-land related rights negotiated through its preferred approach to reconciling rights, modern treaties<strong>. </strong>It defines certainty as a legal technique that &ldquo;reconciles the coexistence of existing Section 35 Aboriginal rights with treaty rights&rdquo; by stipulating that the agreement of the parties in modern treaties cannot be undermined by the use of Section 35 rights when inconsistencies arise between them.&nbsp;</p>
<p>The Inherent Right Policy is clear with respect to the relevance of education. However, the document states that because there are &lsquo;different views about the nature, scope and content&rsquo; of the right to self-government, the government&rsquo;s preferred approach is to avoid legal definitions and to negotiate its terms in treaties with Aboriginal peoples. The government&#39;s de facto policy is that only First Nations that have signed self-government agreements on education are considered to possess jurisdiction over education, and that in the absence of such agreements, the government retains the sole power to make laws with regard to First Nations education.</p>
<p>For Zachary Davis, this policy is entirely flawed and self-serving.</p>
<p>&quot;What the policy says is that the right to Aboriginal self-government only exists as a limit to government power if the government agrees that it does. But as a constitutional right, the right to self-government is not something that the government had to agree to; it is something that limits the government&#39;s power anyway. The government has been able to rely on that policy - and in the great inequity of resources in negotiating those agreements - to minimize the recognition of true self-government for First Nations and to limit the application of the right to self-government for First Nations in the context of modern treaties.&quot;</p>
<p>In the recent Tsilhqot&rsquo;in <a href="https://scc-csc.lexum.com/scc-csc/scc-csc/en/item/14246/index.do" rel="nofollow">decision</a>, the Supreme Court of Canada for the first time affirmed Aboriginal title over a specific land area &ndash;namely, 1,700 square kilometres in the interior of British Columbia as belonging to the Tsilhqot&rsquo;in First Nation. The decision&#39;s analysis described Charter rights and Aboriginal rights as sister provisions of the constitution, in that, as Davis points out, they both function to restrict the government&#39;s ability to act, operating as limits to federal and provincial legislative powers.</p>
<p>In chief respects, the government&rsquo;s presumption of sole authority over First Nations education creates a zero-sum game: the more cards that are placed in the hands of the government, the less autonomy is possible on the ground in places like Kahnawà:ke.</p>
<p>For Deidre Kahwinétha Diome, it is important to stress that First Nations do not want a &#39;loophole&#39; to avoid accountability.</p>
<p>&quot;What we&#39;re saying is, we have our methods of doing things and we need the latitude to keep that flexibility,&rdquo; she says, citing the example of elders who are teaching but don&rsquo;t necessarily have a Master&#39;s degree. &ldquo;According to the new standard in the Act, an elder would not be allowed to be a teacher anymore because she doesn&#39;t have a Master&#39;s degree. Now does that mean that we don&#39;t want to have qualified teachers? No. But that&#39;s how it was distorted in the media to make it sound like that&#39;s what we wanted, and the government were coming in to do what&#39;s best for us because we&#39;re all too stupid to realize that we need standards.&quot;</p>
<p>This hypocrisy is especially frustrating for Kahwinétha: First Nations are portrayed as unaccountable, while the government is let off the hook. A particular point of consternation is clause 46 (2) in the First Nations Education Act, which insulates the federal government against any legal action connected to the Act<strong>. </strong>Kahwinétha connects this to the massive lawsuit that The Assembly of First Nations brought against the government for the harms that it inflicted on First Nations in residential schools.</p>
<p>Furthermore, the concentration of power in the Minister&#39;s hands would further restrict accountability and preclude effective control over curriculum. According to the bill, if the Minister determines that a school is not following the provisions of the Act, he or she can put the school under third party management. There would be no grievance or appeal procedure for First Nations to dispute this unilateral designation.</p>
<p>&nbsp;Kahwinétha relates that her community currently practices &ldquo;curriculum unwrapping&rdquo;&nbsp;- a democratic process kickstarted by the First Nations Education Council that involves identifying core components of education derived from provincial curricula (Kahnawà:ke takes most of its curriculum from Ontario) and removing the material that isn&#39;t necessary so as to provide space for culture and language programming. Under the First Nations Education Act, Kahwinétha says, that discretion would no longer exist.</p>
<p>&quot;The Minister has final say over everything,&rdquo; she says.</p>
<p>The importance of local control of education is never clearer than when language is involved. In indigenous cultures, the two are often one and the same: language is a repository for the culture and is imbued with the nation&rsquo;s history, lessons and knowledge of the natural world. Unfortunately, the First Nation Education Act would place limits on the use of language as part of curriculum.</p>
<p>According to Davis, the bill&#39;s requirement that the language of instruction be in French and English, as well as the Minister&#39;s power to regulate First Nations&#39; languages as languages of instruction, would make the provision of First Nations&#39; language immersion programs illegal.</p>
<p>&quot;Our understanding of the bill is that there is mandatory French or English instruction. There is room for First Nations language instruction but the extent of the instruction would be subject to ministerial approval. So, at best it might be taught as a second language. And frankly, if you want to revive languages that are on the verge of extinction, you need full immersion programs. And the only way to ensure that they will survive is to make sure that they can be taught in a manner that will reinvigorate their vitality.&quot;</p>
<p>Central to the process of reinvigorating languages on the brink of extinction is funding. The funding formula for First Nations&#39; education was first set in 1987 and was last updated in 1996 to reflect population and living costs. Since that time, it has been capped at two per cent per year. Given the rise in population and the cost of living, this has created major shortfalls in funding. In a 2012 backgrounder on First Nations education, the AFN calculated a cumulative funding shortfall of $ 3 billion since 1996.&nbsp;Irrespective of whether the First Nation has a self-government agreement in education, like the community of Eskasoni in Cape Breton island in Nova Scotia, or its own unique arrangement independent of the Indian Act, like Kahnawà:ke, the lack of sustained and reliable funding for education, and in particular for language curriculum, has meant that communities struggle to keep their cultures alive.</p>
<p>In Eskasoni, the school board gets its federal money funnelled through Mi&#39;kmaw Kinatmatnewey, the corporate body created under the Mi&#39;kmaw Education Act in 1997 which provides second level education services to the communities in the region. Through the federal nominal roll system, the school receives funding for students ordinarily resident on reserve on a per-head basis. The board must also apply for grants. The problem is that the core funding does not take into account the costs of developing materials for a culturally relevant pedagogy. That includes funding for libraries, technology, sports and recreation, and most importantly, language. In particular, the school would like to make enough money to provide separate quarters for its immersion school, which currently resides in a wing of the English school. Grants are becoming more difficult to attain, and there is a dire need for funding of specialists - gym teachers, music teachers, speech and language pathologists and occupational therapists - who are trained in the language. Applying for government grants is a full-time job that the community of Eskasoni cannot afford.</p>
<p>Similarly, in Kahnawà:ke, no funding is allotted to language programming, acquisition or retention or language curriculum development. The community relies on core funding from Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development (AANDC), as well as less predictable project proposal-driven funding from AANDC that is released and transferred through the First Nations Education Council, the second level education authority of the Quebec region. The Director of Finance Operations, Louie John Diabo, is forced to find creative ways to disburse the allotted funding in a manner that will meet the community&#39;s needs &ndash; a process he refers to as the &ldquo;cannibalization&rdquo; of his own internal budget to find money for the development of curriculum. Recently, the community learned that its sole source of federal money for curriculum development - the $130,000 Student Success Program - was being cut. Many believe that the cut is punishment for the community&rsquo;s principled fight against the Education Act.</p>
<p>For Louie John, the cut is a form of coercion, and the band is faced with the choice of going it alone or of adopting the government&rsquo;s standards and giving up its inherent rights in exchange for money.</p>
<p>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s as though they&rsquo;re choking us and saying, &lsquo;Sign on the dotted line and you&rsquo;ll get what you want,&rsquo;&rdquo; he says.</p>
<p>When the Harper government announced the First Nations Education Act, they also announced $1.9 billion in new education funds. But there was a catch: the funds were tied to the Act itself. The government would not be providing any new money if First Nations failed to support the Act.</p>
<p>To Kahwinétha, this was blackmail. &quot;If you leave your culture, leave your curriculum behind, and you follow the Canadian standard and curriculum, then we&#39;ll give you this money,&quot; she characterizes it.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Kahwinétha sees language education as a redemptive force in the community. The struggle is both personal and political.</p>
<p>&quot;Nelson Mandela had a very famous quote. &#39;Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.&#39; As an Indigenous person, I have been witness to so many challenges, and so much knowledge of the pain that my people suffered, and yet I feel such tremendous hope for our people. I believe that education is really the root of what can save us. If we can use our education systems to combine our history and our past and our culture and our identity and our language and our thinking with powerful modern curricula, then we can raise children who have a strong identity and who are proud of who they are. They can have anything in this world.&quot;</p>
http://www.mediacoop.ca/story/most-powerful-weapon-ongoing-fight-against-first-n/33620#commentsJ.W. CoadyEducationWed, 03 Jun 2015 19:59:03 +0000jwcoady33620 at http://montreal.mediacoop.caGroundWire | April 14, 2015http://www.mediacoop.ca/audio/groundwire-april-14-2015/33410
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Pipelines Edition </div>
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<p>This episode of GroundWire was produced at radio station CKUW 95.9FM in Winnipeg, Manitoba on Occupied Anishinaabe-Aking and the Homeland of the Metis. It was hosted by Dave Quanbury and Sara Arenson.</p>
<p>Headlines:</p>
<p>A report on the successful campaign to prevent the port at Cacouna, Quebec from becoming a terminal for TransCanada&#39;s Energy East Pipeline |Marilla Steuter-Martin , CJLO</p>
<p>A report on the Saturday April 11 Climate March in Quebec City | Brenna Owen, CFRC</p>
<p>Features:</p>
<p>A report on the environmental hazards associated with the development of the Energy East Pipeline route which would transform large sections of natural gas pipeline into a pipeline for diluted Tar Sands bitumen. |Jonathan Kornelsen, Adesuwa Ero, Michael Welch, Julien Cooper |CKUW</p>
<p>A look at what compels indigenous people to oppose and in some cases support pipeline routes, such as Energy East | Michael Welch, Julien Cooper. CKUW</p>
<p>A report on how people living in the small rural community of Waskada, Manitoba view the impact of the oil boom on their community.| Michael Welch, Julien Cooper, CKUW</p>
<p>A chemical engineer explains the good and bad associated with living and working in the oil patch | Ophira Horwitz, CFRC</p>
<p>Music: Shallow waters by Ta&#39;Kaiya Blaney</p>
<p>GroundWire is a project of the NCRA</p>
<p>groundwire.ncra.ca</p>
http://www.mediacoop.ca/audio/groundwire-april-14-2015/33410#commentsCKUWGroundWireDirect ActionEnvironmentIndigenousLabourCFRCCKUWQuebec CityThu, 16 Apr 2015 04:37:23 +0000GroundWire Production33410 at http://montreal.mediacoop.caSolidarity Means Tabarnak! Quebec Students Strike Against Capitalismhttp://www.mediacoop.ca/video/solidarity-means-tabarnak-quebec-students-strike-a/33370
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<p>This week we look at the student led mobilizations that have rocked the streets of Montreal and Quebec City. From large scale marches, to occupations of university buildings to direct actions, the spring 2015 coalition has re-energized radical organizing in so called Quebec.</p>
<p>To watch more videos like these visit <a href="http://subMedia.tv" rel="nofollow">subMedia.tv</a></p>
http://www.mediacoop.ca/video/solidarity-means-tabarnak-quebec-students-strike-a/33370#commentssubmedia.tvDirect ActionEnvironmentLabouranarchyCEGEPMontrealOccupyPrintemps 2015QuebecriotstudentsuniversitySat, 11 Apr 2015 16:20:48 +0000stimulator33370 at http://montreal.mediacoop.ca